Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network connection control technique.
Description of the Related Art
Information processing apparatuses such as mobile phones that are so-called smartphones have a wireless communication function of connecting to the wide area network (WAN) such as 3G or LTE in order to connect to the Internet. Furthermore, the smartphones have the function of performing communication via a wireless LAN such as Wi-Fi in order to connect faster to the Internet in an environment in which there is a wireless LAN access point, for example, indoors.
On the other hand, there are also electronic apparatuses such as digital cameras that can use the wireless LAN in order to facilitate data communication with a smartphone or the like. By using the wireless LAN, such a digital camera can transfer image data and the like to a smartphone without connecting thereto via a communication cable.
Furthermore, some electronic apparatus such as digital cameras have a wireless LAN access point function. By having the wireless LAN access point function, a digital camera can be connected to a smartphone via the wireless LAN even in an environment in which there is no wireless LAN access point to which the digital camera and the smartphone are connectable, for example, at the place where the user thereof has gone to.
Furthermore, smartphones have the function of acquiring an update program for application software or the like from a server on the Internet and automatically updating the software. Particularly, in a case of software that connects to an external service or device, processing is often performed in which capability information of the software that is needed for using the service or the device is acquired from the connection destination, and updating the software depending on the acquired capability information (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-526676).
Ordinarily, the wireless communication function of the information processing apparatuses such as smartphones is a function of connecting to the Internet. Accordingly, even in the case where an information processing apparatus is connected to the wide area network such as 3G or LTE, if the faster wireless LAN communication is available, the wide area network connection is automatically disconnected and switched to the wireless LAN connection. On the other hand, even in the case of the electronic apparatus having the wireless LAN access point function as represented by the above-described digital camera, there is the case where the apparatus itself does not have the function of connecting to the Internet. For example, when the smartphone performs wireless LAN connection to a wireless LAN access point formed by such an electronic apparatus, the wide area network connection is automatically disconnected and the smartphone is in the state in which it is not connected to the Internet. Accordingly, the smartphone in the state of not being connected to the Internet cannot access a server on the Internet that provides an update program even when software needs to be updated, and cannot update the software.